Neeraj Ghaywan is all praise for Vicky Kaushal's performance in "Masaan" but he had doubts about casting the newcomer for the role, which was initially supposed to be played by National-award-winner Rajkumar Rao.
Kaushal portrays an aspiring youth in Varanasi, whose life is a contrast between desires and realities. He wants to become a successful civil engineer while handling the family business of working around pyres on the ghats.
Both Vicky and Neeraj started their careers together as assistant directors on Anurag Kashyap's "Gangs of Wasseypur".
"We earlier thought of Rajkumar Rao for Deepak. I was very particular about having the nuances of the culture and look right so I was hesitant to take him as he is from Mumbai and a Punjabi. I was not sure if he would be right.
"He is a dear friend but I would not have cast him just because of that as the film is above me," Neeraj said on the sidelines of the sixth Jagran Film Festival where his film premiered.
Young Kaushal's two-scene audition, however, changed the director's mind.
"I was blown away by his audition. I called him and said, 'You are my Deepak'. He has put in a lot of effort to get Deepak right... There was a point in the film, where I derived my directorial notes from him because he became more of the character than I could become as a director," Neeraj said.
"Masaan", also starring Sanjay Mishra, Richa Chadha and Shweta Tripathi, bagged two awards at this years' Cannes film festival and is slated to hit Indian theatres on July 24.
